Protests in US cities over Trump's victory, 5 shot

Republican Donald Trump’s surprise U.S. presidential election win, sparked spontaneous protests across many cities on Wednesday, with marchers blasting his stance on immigrants, Muslims and other groups.

In New York, thousands of protesters filled streets in midtown Manhattan as they made their way to Trump Tower, Trump’s gilded home on Fifth Avenue. Hundreds of others gathered at a Manhattan park and shouted “Not my president.”

In downtown Chicago, an estimated 1,800 people gathered outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower, chanting phrases like “No Trump! No KKK! No racist USA.”

Chicago police closed roads in the area, impeding the demonstrators’ path. There were no immediate reports of arrests or violence there.

“I’m just really terrified about what is happening in this country,” said 22-year-old Adriana Rizzo in Chicago, who was holding a sign that read: “Enjoy your rights while you can.”

In Seattle, a gunman opened fire following an argument and wounded five people, one man critically, not far from protests. The police claimed the shooting was not connected to the anti-Trump demonstrations but instead stemmed from a personal argument..

“It appears that some type of argument took place. This individual began to walk away from the crowd, then turned and fired into the crowd,” said Robert Merner, assistant chief of the Seattle Police Department.

He said the suspect then fled from the area on foot and remained at large more than an hour later.

The most seriously injured victim, a man, was rushed to nearby Harborview Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition on Wednesday night. The other four victims, identified only as one woman and three men, all sustained non-life threatening wounds to their legs, police said.

Hundreds also gathered in Philadelphia, Boston and Portland, Oregon, on Wednesday evening, and organizers planned rallies in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland, California. In Austin, the Texas capital, about 400 people marched through the streets, police said.

A representative of the Trump campaign did not respond immediately to requests for comment on the protests. Trump said in his victory speech he would be president for all Americans, saying: “It is time for us to come together as one united people.” Earlier this month, his campaign rejected the support of a Ku Klux Klan newspaper and said that “Mr. Trump and his campaign denounces hate in any form.”

Earlier on Wednesday, some 1,500 students and teachers rallied in the courtyard of Berkeley High School, in a San Francisco Bay Area city known for its liberal politics, before marching toward the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.

Hundreds of high school and college students also walked out in protest in Seattle, Phoenix, Los Angeles and three other Bay Area cities – Oakland, Richmond and El Cerrito.

A predominantly Latino group of about 300 high school students walked out of classes on Wednesday morning in Los Angeles and marched to the steps of City Hall, where they held a brief but boisterous rally.